Know No Fear
by StingSpring
Summary: Nick is finally comfortable in his double life as a cop and a Grimm but that all changes when the Reapers show up and with them a whole chain of unpleasant surprises. Will Nick be able to survive or will the Grimm conquer all?
1. Chapter 1

**Hey there faithful fans! I am back after a long period of furious typing and plot connecting! **

**So here is the promised sequel to Pack Rules. To any new readers out their, it would be helpful to read the previous story but not _completely_ necessary... if I give you a small crash course which starts now. Nick was not taken in by Aunt Marie but instead grew up with a foster family that turned out to be Blutbaden. Jason is Nick's foster brother, Tony is Nick's foster dad, and Christie is Nick's foster mom. Nick loves his foster family as if they were his own and vice versa. That is pretty much the basics, but if any of you have any questions, feel free to PM or leave it in a review if you're a guest...or you could just read Pack Rules...whichever is easier for you guys!:D **

**So without any further distracting from me, please enjoy the first chapter to Know No Fear!**

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><p><em>Nick Burckhardt reached out towards the murderer in front of him, trying to push away the gun that was pressed up against Juliette's head. His hand, so close to grabbing the gun, swiped at air as the murderer suddenly appeared a foot across the room, laughing.<em>

"_Please, think of what you're doing!" Nick heard himself plead, but he didn't care anymore…he just didn't care._

_The murderer across from him kept laughing, his deep voice echoing throughout the dark room. He pulled back the slide and Nick heard the click of a bullet entering the chamber of the gun._

"_No, no…stop!" he started running, but couldn't move his legs fast enough. The gunshot rang throughout the room, hurting his ears and all Nick could do was stare in horror as blood sprayed out of Juliette's head and went all over the wall…_

Nick woke up gasping and rapidly sat up in bed. He quickly glanced around him, taking in the dark features of his bedroom. Relief hit him in a dizzying head rush when he realized that he wasn't still in the mysterious dark room. Sighing, he rubbed his hand against his forehead rubbing his eyes as if it would get rid of the bloody image left in his mind. _It was just a dream. It was just a dream_, he repeated to himself, his heart beating against his ribcage and air still coming out in ragged gasps. As the last effects of the nightmare left him, he checked the time on his phone.

_5:30…great, _he thought. He spent a couple more minutes trying to shake off the effects of the nightmare, but when the time turned to 5:33, he gave up and speed dialed his girlfriend. Time be damned, he had to make sure she was okay.

After five rings, he almost hung up figuring she was asleep, but on the sixth ring he got an answer,

"_Hello?"_

Nick sighed in relief, feeling like he could finally breathe again, "Hey honey, sorry for the early call. Did I wake you?"

There was a pause on the other line, and then Juliette finally sighed, _"Was it another nightmare?"_

Nick would've smiled if he still wasn't so shaken up from the past couple minutes. He should've known that Juliette would see through anything he tried to pull. She just knew him too well. "Yeah- I…yeah, it was another nightmare. I just had to check…"

"_I know babe, I know. And its okay, I'm fine. Nothing exciting happening here except for this new medication my mom got. I think this one will be better for her, less side effects and all."_

"That's great! That's really great, and sorry again for calling so early-" he paused when his phone beeped. He glanced down at the caller ID and sighed, there could only be one reason Wu was calling at this hour, "Hey listen, I've got another call. I'll talk to you later, okay? Love you."

"_Love you too, Nick."_

He waited for the line to click, then switched over, "Wu, don't tell me…"

"_Morning sunshine, hope you got lots of beauty rest 'cause this one's a real twister."_

Nick sighed; at least he was already up, "Where?"

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><p>When Nick arrived on the scene, Hank was already examining the bodies, Wu standing behind him. They were in an alley far away from the main road and sadly, the public eye, meaning there probably won't be many witnesses, he realized frowning. Looking down at the two bodies lying on the blood-stained cement, the first thing he noticed right away was that both victim's heads seemed to have been cut off, but otherwise not aggravated in any other way. He looked at Wu, "What've we got?"<p>

"Well good morning to you too," Wu said sarcastically but pointed down with his pen to the first body. "The names Riley Langer, a young woman aged late twenties who used to work for a local newspaper and that body next to her is her sister, Bailey Langer, aged early twenties and currently unemployed." Wu paused giving Nick the chance to crouch down next to Hank to get a closer look. "They apparently just finished eating dinner at Firehouse according to this receipt," he held up a small piece paper, "When they were attacked by what I would safely assume was an ax wielding maniac and later found by Mrs. Grians over there," he explained pointing over to a middle aged, rightly scared looking woman sitting in the back of an ambulance. "Now as I'm sure you've already noticed, they've both been decapitated and the heads have not been found yet although we've got everyone on it."

Nick studied the two girl's appearance. Neither wore any outstanding or bright colors and their clothes seemed to be casual with not many tears or rips in them. One strange thing was that both girls had their right hand clenched in a fist and resting on their chest, more or less over the heart. He wanted to open their fists just to make sure they weren't holding anything but decided to wait for the end of his investigation. He noticed that both were still wearing necklaces and earrings though and two purses lay next to their bodies. "Anything stolen?"

"Not as far as I can tell, our executioner seems to be more a fan of blood than money. Can't say I feel the same way, but…" Wu trailed off when he noticed the looks that both Hank and Nick were giving him. "Fine, the wallets still have cash and the credit cards are still there."

"So, mugging is definitely ruled out," Hank said. "Got their phones?"

"I'm pretty sure mugging got ruled out the moment they lost their heads," Wu commented with a dry smile, "But both phones were found lying on the ground so Forensics is still trying to get some prints, I'll let you know when they're ready for you," He ended and swiftly walked away to where Forensics was grouped.

Hank stood with a grunt, brushing off his pants. "So, what do you think?"

Nick thought for a couple seconds but the two victims closed fists kept on stealing his thoughts. Curiosity getting the better of him, he looked up at Hank. "I want to open their hands, are we cleared?"

"We were waiting for you, go for it." Hank said leaning in to get a closer look as Nick slowly probed Riley's fist open with a pen.

Nick felt a small spike of disappointment run through him when nothing fell out of her hand, but disappointment quickly turned into a feeling of dread when he saw something else. Cut into the palm of her hand was a small Scythe. "Reapers," Nick murmured, loud enough for Hank to catch.

"You mean the thing that killed your Aunt?" Hank asked focusing on opening up Bailey's closed fist.

"Yeah, but their whole system is dedicated to hunting down Grimms," Nick murmured absentmindedly, fearing what this could mean.

"So this wasn't a random killing," Hank said as he finally opened the girl's fist.

Nick looked at the symbol that was also cut into her palm forebodingly, "No. I think we were meant to find this. They're supposed to be a message."

Hank paused, letting that sink in, "What's the message then?"

"I don't know," Nick answered truthfully, his brow creasing, "but I'm going to find out."

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><p>It was around 7:30 by the time Nick and Hank returned to the precinct. Nick sat down at his desk and immediately began doing a background check on the younger victim, also finding next of kin. He sighed when he saw that the girl's had parents living nearby. He really hated this part of the job, notifying the family and friends. If he wasn't able to keep the balance by doing good, he'd end up going crazy, he mused as he kept scrolling through Bailey's past. He heard Hank's phone go off to his right and looked over when it started to sound important.<p>

Hank listened for a while then murmured a 'yeah thanks' before hanging up and meeting Nick's inquisitive gaze, "That was Forensics."

"…and?" Nick asked patiently waiting for the rest.

Hank sighed and paused before looking up at Nick, "We got nothing. No prints, no DNA, nothing. Hell, if we didn't already know what the weapon was and what type of person did this, this case would be half way buried," Hank weighed. "But we are closer to finding out who did this, right?"

"I don't know, Hank," Nick said with a shake of his head. "It's one thing to know its Wesen and a whole other thing to _find_ that Wesen. Usually the Reapers end up coming to me but this time, we can't afford to let them kill any more people."

"So we gotta find them first…" Hank paused suddenly, "Hey, aren't these guys usually sent in from Europe or something?"

Nick caught on to what Hank was saying and raised an eyebrow, "Check recent flight arrivals?"

Hank shrugged, "Hey man, it's all we got."

Nick mulled that over before sighing and turning back to his computer, "Let's get to work."

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><p>Jason mumbled something unintelligible before turning over noisily in his sleep, blissfully unaware of the shrilling beeping sound the alarm on his phone was emitting on the table next to him. Unfortunately, not everyone was able to sleep through the annoyance that is alarm clocks as Tony yelled a sleepy but desperate, "Shut that thing off!" from the guest bedroom upstairs. Five minutes passed in which Jason did nothing more than snore a few times and roll dangerously close to the edge of the couch, his alarm continuing to wake the whole house up in its fervent beeping.<p>

Another minute passed until finally, Tony came stomping down the stairs and into the living room to turn off the alarm on his son's phone for what felt like the hundredth time. Taking care to press the 'off' instead of 'snooze' option this time, Tony stared at his son's seemingly lifeless form, willing him to wake up by transferring all the feelings of irritation that came with being woken up by somebody else's alarm, towards his son.

Jason simply scratched his nose and rolled away from his precarious perch on the edge of the couch with a snort. With a roll of his eyes, Tony stomped back upstairs mumbling the whole way about phones and crushing and being Weider. After he closed his door, a peaceful silence finally fell over the household that was so calm and relaxing, the piercing sound of the alarm clock was all but forgotten having been replaced by the distant sound of chirping birds.

A loud knocking at the front door caused Jason to jerk awake, eyes shooting open as he quickly rolled away from the couch, landing on the floor with a thump. "Ahhh… who is it?" he called out sluggishly, pulling himself up off the floor with a confused groan.

"It's Monroe, let me in, man!" A muffled voice yelled from the other side of the door.

"Monroe? What are you doing here so earlyyyy…hoolly crap!" Jason said smacking his hand against his forehead, "We were supposed to meet at that farmer's market thing together!" he stood up and started walking towards the door, "Oh man, I totally blew him off." He mumbled to himself as he opened the front door and Monroe stumbled in, all brown bags and a bouncy energy that should be illegal at this hour.

"Dude, about time you let me in. Nick's neighbor, Mrs. Reynolds, was starting to walk over here. She made it look like she was taking out the trash, but you know how she is with all the questions besides, today's not even trash day…" Monroe trailed on as he put his bags down on the floor and took off his coat.

"Monroe I am so sorry," Jason said interrupting Monroe's energetic ramble of his close call with Nick's nosy next door neighbor. "We were supposed to meet at that place you told me about and I totally just blew you off," He finished shaking his head.

"Don't worry about it, Nick already warned me about your tendency to sleep through scheduled engagements," Monroe said with a smile. "I planned for it and figured I'd come cook a little breakfast for you guys."

Well now he felt like a jerk, "Thanks man but seriously, the next meeting we schedule, I promise I'll make it on time."

"Yeah you better, I don't invite just anybody to the farmer's market you know and besides, if you get there late you'll miss the first shipment," Monroe exclaimed. "After that what's the point?" he finished mostly to himself as he picked up his brown produce bags and made his way towards the kitchen.

Feeling a little better about his screw up, Jason hung up Monroe's coat. "I know what you mean," he really didn't but he guessed he would find out when he actually made it to that farmer's market. "Oh, and I think my parents are still sleeping so we should probably try and keep it down," he added as an afterthought, making his way to the kitchen.

"_Thank_ you!" Tony's muffled voice proclaimed from upstairs causing both Monroe and Jason to look at each other.

"What's up with him?" Monroe asked jerking a thumb in the direction of the stairs.

"I don't know," Jason answered shaking his head, "he just gets like that sometimes."

"Oh, well, I'm sure he'll feel better after he's had some fresh organic vegetable omelet," Monroe held up a bag filled with onions, tomatoes, and other various vegetarian delicacies. He started pulling out ingredients when he glanced up at Jason, "You gonna help or are you just gonna stand there and watch?" he asked as he turned the stove on.

Jason thought back to his last cooking experience with a slight frown. _I can probably help_, he contemplated with a shrug and grabbed the washed onion Monroe held out to him. _After all, how hard can it be to blow up an egg twice?_

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><p>Nick sighed and rubbed his watery eyes with the palm of his hands. They hit another dead end. Looking through full flights of people arriving from Europe was a long shot but they had to try something, there just wasn't enough to go on.<p>

"Damn. I can't believe these guys are taking us," Hank said sounding just as exhausted and frustrated as Nick felt.

"It's what they do, Hank. They pull hits like this all the time and leave nothing behind but the bodies." Nick mumbled from behind his hands.

"Still though…" Hank said with a shake of his head

"Any luck on the Langer case?"A deep and serious voice said from somewhere behind them.

Nick turned around in his swivel chair to face the Captain, dressed in his usual attire of black suit and tie, making his way towards their desks, "None so far, the killer left no evidence and there weren't any witnesses."

"We just keep on hitting dead ends," Hank added in.

"There is something though," Nick paused, making sure none of the busy people milling around the precinct was in earshot. "We found a Scythe cut into both victims' palms." He continued in a lowered voice, giving Renard a meaningful look that clearly shouted WESEN.

"Reapers," Renard stated matter-of-factly.

"Exactly… How do you want to handle this?"

Renard paused for a second, brows furrowed over his piercing gaze, "Keep your eyes open and encourage whatever ideas any of the other officers come up with. I'll see what I can do on my part," and with that the Captain turned and strode straight for his office, closing the door behind him.

Nick stared at where the Captain had disappeared, contemplating how he was going to have to practically lie to his fellow officers. "I guess this means we can encourage Wu's gang theory," he said turning back towards his desk to face Hank who, like he had been, was looking in the direction of Renard's office.

"Whatever he does, I hope he does it soon… I got a bad feeling on this one."

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><p><strong>And that was Chapter 1! Kind of leaving it open but the next chapter will see some more plot. Thanks so much for reading!<strong>


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey guys! **

**Thanks so much for all the follows, reviews, and favs! It's been a while so hearing from everyone was great! I guess what I'm trying to say is...I missed you guys...*sniffles while wiping away tear*. Anyways, here's a little more plot for you guys- not a lot, just a little:) but hopefully it'll still be at least a little satisfying! **

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><p>"You're kidding!" Jason gaped at Monroe over his half-eaten, pepperless vegetable omelet.<p>

Monroe smiled; finally someone's having the right reaction to this story. "Nope, he walked straight into my territory. A complete stranger, who tackled me in my own house no less, walks right into my backyard," he shook his head and took a sip from his French pressed coffee, savoring the taste of the dark liquid.

"I can't believe Nick would do something that dangerous!" Tony exclaimed mirroring Jason's open-mouthed expression, "you said he was already a Grimm when he did that?"

"Well," Monroe raised his shoulders in a small shrug, "he was still pretty new at it. I don't think he had been seeing anything for more than a few days, maybe less even. It was pretty noticeable too; he had this kinda clueless fear in his eyes that gave him away."

"That's Nick for you," Tony said exchanging a small smile with Christie, "his face has always been like an open book."

"So what did you do?" She urged curiously.

Monroe swallowed his mouthful of vegetarian omelet faster than he would have liked to, coughing a little into his fist to clear his throat, "I- well I did what- what I would say any other Weider Blutbad would do in my position," Monroe stammered, hoping that would be a satisfying note to end the story on, but one look at their expectant faces and he knew he had to fess up. With a sigh, he decided to just come out with it, "I jumped through the window and tackled him, then kinda threw him against the wall as sort of a warning. Just to make sure he wasn't gonna kill me or do some other horribly cherished Grimm thing to me."

Jason was the first to break the silence with a loud, snorty laugh, "Oh my gosh, are you serious? His expression must've been priceless!"

Monroe let out the breath he didn't even realize he was holding, "Oh yeah, he looked pretty freaked out," he recalled fondly. You know sometimes his own conscience would bother him about pushing around the baby Grimm that night but then Nick would call in the middle of a date with Rosalee or something similar asking about the latest Wesen of the week and what little guilt he felt would disappear in a puff of smoke. _It was practically self-defense anyways_, Monroe justified to himself silently.

"You didn't hurt him though, did you?" Christie asked, that ever present concern for her foster son shining in her eyes.

Jason looked into his omelet, "Because he didn't have that coming at all- hey!" he protested, rubbing the spot on his arm where Christie had just smacked him.

"No! No… I didn't hurt him, just a little jolt to shake him up, you know? It was harmless," he reassured Tony and Christie.

As both of the older Blutbaden sighed in relief, Monroe's phone rang in his pocket. Pulling it out and glancing at the caller ID, his heart lifted to see it was Rosalee. "Excuse me for a second," he told the three as he pushed out of his chair, walking into Nick's living room.

"Hey Rosalee, how's it going?" he greeted her, cringing slightly at the overly enthusiastic tone he just couldn't seem to get rid of whenever he talked to her. He frowned when the only thing he heard was static on the other line, "Rosalee?" and then a loud crashing noise had his heart hammering in his chest and his grip tightening around his slim, fragile phone. "Rosalee!"

"_Monroe?! Monroe, please help me!" _Rosalee's muffled voice yelled through the phone.

"Where are you?! What's happening?!" Monroe grabbed his coat and keys and ran out the door, he could distinctly hear Tony and Jason yelling something after him but he ignored them and jumped into his car, starting the engine.

"_I'm- I'm at the spiceshop!"_ More scuffling and crashing noises could be heard in the background, _"Please! Please hurry!...No, no, stop!"_ she continued sounding as if she were pleading to someone else. He was about to yell some other panicked question at her when the line clicked. Throwing his phone into the passenger seat, the only thing he could do was step on the gas and try not to let his fangs bite through his lip.

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><p>Monroe burst into the spice shop, a strangled "Rosalee!" ripping out of his changed throat and quickly looking around expecting…well he didn't know what he was expecting… shards of glass from broken jars scattered all over the floor, shelf's broken in half and hanging off walls, and most definitely an attacker or some sort of threat.<p>

He didn't see any of this.

In fact, the spice shop looked completely normal. If anything it looked cleaner, he realized with an appalled start, quickly scanning the room for Rosalee. "Rosalee!" he yelled again, running into the side room, but there was no sign of her there either. He turned and was about to run back into the main part of the store when he found himself practically nose to nose with a very startled looking Fuchsbau.

"Rosalee! Are you okay? What happened?" he rambled picking her up and crushing her to his chest in a tight bear hug. The hug felt kind of awkward after a little bit so he let her down, seeing the reason why immediately. She was holding a broom in both hands.

"Umm… have you been sweeping?"

Rosalee, looking slightly bewildered, "Yeah, just tidying up a bit… what's up?" she asked taking in Monroe's frenzied appearance.

Monroe stared at her, now officially freaked out. "But…but…you called me! You said you needed help!"

Rosalee shuffled her broom around innocently, "Well I _could_ use some help, but I didn't call you."

Monroe continued to look at her, his fingers wrapped around her thin arms. He searched her wary expression, looking for any sign that she was putting him on or pulling some twisted practical joke even though he never saw her go any farther than slipping some lemon juice into his morning coffee _accidently_. The only thing he saw though was her wary expression slowly change into confusion and then a hint of worry entered her eyes. If it wasn't Rosalee then what the hell had happened here? It sure as hell wasn't anything on his end of things…he was definitely known to get worked up sometimes but he never imagined an entire conversation before. He pulled his phone out of his pocket…Only one person to call in a time like this.

"Who are you calling?" Rosalee asked, nodding towards his phone.

Monroe brought the phone to his ear, "I'm calling Nick…something's not right."

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><p>Nick closed his front door, heaving a big, relieved sigh. It was nice to be home after everything that had happened today, it's just that he couldn't stop thinking about the case. He also couldn't stop thinking about the fact that somewhere in Portland, there were Reapers possibly finding their next victim. He shook his head, clearing his mind of those thoughts. There wasn't much he could do right now, he and Hank had already tried everything they could think of. Renard had even sent them home after a couple of hours with orders to get some much needed sleep… optimistically, not at their desks.<p>

"Nick, is that you?" he heard Christie calling from somewhere in the house.

Trying to get the image of the two victims out of his head, he walked in to find his foster mom sitting at the dining room table, a steaming mug of what looked like tea clutched in her hands and a fashion magazine lying open on the table.

"Hey Sweetie, I was just about to make dinner. How does Raviolis sound?" She asked in a light voice looking up from the magazine at Nick.

"That sounds great," Nick replied, plastering on his most convincing smile.

Christie stared at him a second longer than was necessary before finally patting the chair on her right, "Why don't you sit down for a couple of minutes?"

He ran his hand through his hair then made his way to the seat. Why he even tried to fool the women in his life he will never know, he thought as he sat down facing his mom.

"Why don't you tell me what's bothering you," Christie asked in a gentle voice, covering his hand with hers.

Nick hesitated, the last thing he wanted to do was worry his mom with any of the crazy Grimm issues that were currently affecting his life. But if the past attempt at acting normal was any indication, there was no way Christie will let him leave this table without getting the truth from him.

"I got called on a homicide today and it turned out to be done by Reapers," he told her falteringly, determined to keep most of the gory details to himself.

A small gasp left Christie's lips. "Oh no," she whispered, the hand that had previously been squeezing his own now covering her mouth. Seeing her reaction, Nick knew that she realized the full extent of what that small bit of information meant.

"Don't worry," he quickly comforted her, "We're going to find them and stop them before they hurt anyone else."

Christie looked at him with shining eyes, "It's not that I'm worried about…they're here looking for you! Don't you know that?"

Nick could hear the worry in her voice verging on the line of panic clear as day and silently berated himself. He should have known better than to push his problems off on to his family. "Yeah, of course I know that, mom."

Christie's perturbed expression didn't change, if anything it got worse. "No. You don't understand, you don't," she whispered, biting her bottom lip.

Nick paused. The way she said that…it didn't sound right… "What don't I understand?" he asked her cautiously, a little worried now.

She stared at him, eyes torn and clearly weighing whether or not to tell him. Without looking away from him, she opened her mouth and called, "Tony!" towards the staircase.

Nick furrowed his brow; this was starting to look really bad. Christie only called his dad in when whatever she had to say was too hard to do on her own he realized as Tony came jogging down the stairs, Jason lumbering in behind him a giant grin on his face.

"What's up?" he asked smile slowly dying on his face as he took in both his mom and Nick's expressions.

Christie tore her eyes away from Nick's to look at Tony, "We need to tell him."

"Tell him what?"

"Tell him about the Reapers," she said firmly.

He could almost hear Tony's jaw close shut with a snap, "What happened?" he asked deadpan.

"They're back. And this time they followed through on their promise."

That was it; no more dancing around, he needed to know _now_. "What are you guys talking about?"

Both his parents stared into each other's eyes minutely, giving Nick the feeling they were communicating through that alone. At Tony's nod, Christie turned back to him. "We had never told you this before, because you didn't know anything about our world…"

She hesitated, making Nick even more impatient to hear what they were trying to tell him "Now I know. So tell me."

Christie looked at her husband and he walked further into the dining room, pulling out the closest chair next to her and grabbing her hand as he sat down to face Nick, "A long time ago, when you were still in school, your Aunt Marie came to visit you."

That was a day he would never forget. He didn't know how to feel seeing his Aunt again after the loss of his parents, but her leaving him so soon helped make up his mind. "Yeah I remember. She only stayed for like one day though, right?"

Tony nodded, "Right. But there was another reason she came back to Rhinebeck…to warn us."

That threw him, he had never been aware that his Aunt had come for any reason other than to see how he was doing. "About what?"

"She had traveled all the way from Wisconsin because she had apparently heard rumors that there was a young, orphaned Grimm living in Rhinebeck under the roof of a family of Blutbaden and that the Reapers weren't happy about it. So one day when you and Jason were in school, she just showed up at our door raving about your Grimm heritage and scaring us half out of our minds."

"Wait," Jason interrupted from his spot leaning against the wall, his hands raised in a 'hold everything' position, "I thought you guys didn't know Nick was a Grimm."

"We didn't know Nick's Grimm had already awoken," Christie clarified, "Your Aunt Marie told us that there was a chance it may never will and we had always hoped it wouldn't, but we knew of your Grimm heritage."

Nick stared at her, mind reeling. He couldn't believe this, yet another part of his past was once again showing up to haunt him and what was worse, his family had known…well, most of them anyways, he thought glancing at Jason's open-mouthed expression.

"What else happened?"

"We agreed to keep everything from you and continue with the human façade," Christie admitted, reaching her hand out to cover his when his face hardened. "You were so young and still so devastated by your parent's death. We didn't want you to carry the burden of being hunted for the rest of your life like an animal."

"There's more," Tony continued slowly. "The same day Marie showed up on our doorstep, the Reapers also decided to pay a visit. They forced their way in demanding to find you, but we told them you weren't home. There wasn't much of a fight, I don't think Marie wanted to jeopardize your safety by keeping them around the house much longer," he weighed. "But she was firm in telling them that they would never get you. That's when things got a little violent, she killed one and injured the second, and then right before she killed him, he delivered a message."

Nick held his breath throughout the silence that fell with Tony's pause, his heart beating against his rib cage. He watched as Christie looked away from him and stared down at her and Tony's intertwined hands as he continued.

"He said that them not returning was a signal to the others and that they would spend every day hunting you down, killing whoever got in their way until they found you. From that day on…you became their priority." Tony ended leaving a cold silence in the room that nobody seemed to want to break for what felt like an eternity.

"What did you guys do?" Jason finally asked breaking the quiet with wide eyes.

"We had our old neighbor Louis pick you two up from school and take you out to get ice cream while we cleaned the house and planned how we were going to protect Nick." Christie all but whispered. There was a waiver in her voice that Nick had rarely heard before, her eyes now staring at a spot on the wall somewhere over his shoulder, "Marie promised us that she would never let anyone harm us as long as we kept you as safe as possible," she looked at Nick. "We never heard from the Reapers again, I'm sure that she took care of any that came in our direction and you were able to grow up as normal as possible."

Nick looked down to stare at his hands resting on the table, completely silent. He knew they were anxiously waiting for him to say something, but he didn't even know what could be said right now. All he knew was that there was an anger building inside him. Whether it was because his parents had kept something like this from him for so long or because the Reapers were killing and had killed who knows how many innocents all because of him, he wasn't exactly sure. To be honest, it was probably both. The sound of his phone's shrill ringing coming from his pocket cut through the tense silence and saved him from having to answer yet.

"Burckhardt," he answered, his voice sounding hoarse to him so he quickly cleared it.

"_Hey Nick_," Monroe's voice greeted from the other line, "_Where you been all day? I've been trying to get a hold of—" _Rosalee's voice interrupted in the background, making Monroe stop mid sentence. _"-Right, to the point…I was just wondering if you were busy? Cause me and Rosalee could really use your help down here at the spice shop_."

"Can it wait?" Nick asked casting a glance around the table at the impassive faces of his family.

There was a pause on the other line and what sounded like Monroe and Rosalee whispering urgently to each other before Monroe answered, his voice a little higher than before, "_Uuumm, not really. Something weird just happened with Rosalee and…you know it would just be easier to tell you in person, so could you get down here?"_

"I'm on my way." Nick hung up and pushed away from the table. "Sorry, something's come up," he told his parents already walking towards the door.

"Okay honey, just be careful…please."

He left before he could hear the soft "I love you" fall from Christie's lips, door slamming shut behind him.

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><p><strong>Ah! The sweet, satisfying success that comes with screwing up a family dinner! HahaMwahahaha! Whoops, did that turn evil on me? JK! So thanks for reading, see you guys in the next chapter!<strong>


	3. Chapter 3

**Thanks so much for all the reviews, favs, and follows. You guys are the best! I hope you enjoy this next chapter:D **

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><p>Nick pulled the door to spice shop open, making the entry bell jingle loudly. The familiar smell of tea hit his nose as he walked in to the small, empty room, looking around. Just as he began to wonder whether the two were still there, he heard Monroe yell "in here!" from the next to room.<p>

He walked in to find them both sitting on the couch, "What's up?" he asked when neither of the two said anything.

Monroe rubbed his knees a few times before standing up, "Well…I'm not really sure."

"Is something wrong or…"

"Yeah, you could say that…" Monroe began falteringly. Nick could practically feel the confusion and edginess radiating off the Blutbad's body, "I was at your house earlier this morning, talking with your parents and Jason, you know? When I got this call from Rosalee and it sounded a lot like she was being attacked…violently attacked," he added in.

Nick felt his eyes widen, he hadn't been expecting that at all. "Are you okay?" he asked Rosalee who nodded in exchange, not seeming even half as worried as Monroe was right now. He looked between the two of them. If Rosalee had been attacked then why were they talking to him right now?

He voiced his confusion when the two of them continued to watch him as if they were expecting him to pull the attacker out from behind the couch already in handcuffs, "Why aren't you guys down at the station putting in a statement then?"

"Well, you see here's where it gets kinda hard to understand," Monroe said tilting his head forward a little.

Jeez, the guy looked like he was about ready explode with all the pent up energy. This whole thing must've really freaked him out…

"I ran over here to help her but when I got inside, she was fine! As in capable of house cleaning fine! And she didn't even know what I was talking about when I told her about the phone call!"

Nick frowned at that and turned towards Rosalee, "You weren't attacked?"

She shook her head, "No, I was just cleaning the shop up when Monroe showed up this morning."

Nick thought for a couple seconds. He had never heard of anything like this before, but that unfortunately was how most of his cases went these days. With a shrug, he decided he had to start somewhere so he asked Monroe for his phone. Going into recents, he found Rosalee's name right below his at the top of the list. "Is this the call that you got from her?" he asked showing the phone to Monroe.

"Yeah, that's the one."

Nick showed the phone to Rosalee next, "Is that your number?"

She read the numbers to herself and finally nodded, "Yes, that's my number."

"Alright, can I see your phone?" he asked her.

Rosalee felt her pockets, frowning slightly when her hands came out empty, "I think I might've left it on the counter," she admitted as she left the room to go check. Coming back a couple minutes later, she handed him her phone.

Nick checked her recents. Shrugging, he held up the phone so both could see, "It says here that a call was made to Monroe at the same time as your phone," he told Monroe. He handed Rosalee back her phone when his own starting ringing in his pocket.

"Burckhardt."

Hank's voice greeted him over the line, "_Hey man, there's just been another homicide down here on Everett street. I'm already here and it is_ not _looking good."_

"Alright, give me ten." He shoved his phone in his pocket. Now that he knew a little more about what and more importantly _why_ this was happening, he was pissed off and ready to get these guys behind bars. "I've gotta go, I'll see you guys later."

"Hey, what about this?" Monroe asked holding up both phones.

Nick slowly started walking backwards towards the door, "It would be better that you both stay together, just in case." He opened the door about to walk out but turned around as another thought occurred to him, "Oh and keep your phones with you. Don't let them out of your sight," he added in and with that he turned and left, slamming the door behind him.

"Well that was informative," Monroe said towards the door, still holding both phones in his hands. He felt a little whiplashed from Nick's visit, the man had literally appeared and disappeared in a matter of minutes and he was no closer to figuring out what the hell had happened earlier than he was before.

"I'm sure it's important," Rosalee consoled patting Monroe's back, "he did look a little off though."

Monroe nodded handing her the phone. Now that she mentioned it, Nick had looked a little edgy. "Yeah, wonder what's bugging him?" he thought out loud while slipping his phone into his pocket. At least Nick had managed to give him an excuse to keep an eye on Rosalee he realized, stealing a quick glance in her direction. The only question now was would she let him. "So, any ideas on how the hell that call was made?" he asked her when she started walking towards the counter.

Rosalee plucked a few jars off of shelves on her way, "No," she admitted finally sounding appropriately shaken, confusion entering her tone, "It's actually really creeping me out too. How did someone get a hold of my phone? I've just been here cleaning the whole day and I'm pretty sure my phone's been with me."

Monroe shook his head, he really _really_ hated riddles. "I don't know, that's why I was hoping Nick would have some ideas, but you saw where that went," Monroe scoffed. "I guess we'll just have to wait and do what he says for now."

"I guess that means you'll be sticking around then," Rosalee replied, shooting a reserved smile in his direction as she bent over to set her arm full of jars and vials down on the cluttered counter-top.

"Guess I will be," Monroe retorted, smiling back at her just as timid while simultaneously stuffing his hands in his khakis.

Rosalee straightened up from the counter-top beaming and holding out the broom. "Great! I never did get a chance to sweep the backroom."

* * *

><p>Jason took a sip from his coffee, grunting when the hot, dark liquid burned his tongue. He had finally been able to make it to that new coffee shop Monroe had told him about after the talk with his family had gone south. Sitting as far away from the rest of society as he could, he sighed. He wasn't usually the dramatic one in the family, (that position had already been filled in by Nick a <em>long<em> time ago) but he couldn't help feeling a little—okay, a lot—shocked at everything that had been revealed today. The thought that his parents had been hiding something this major from him for all these years and clearly didn't have much intention of ever telling him kind of disturbed him. It made him wonder what other secrets they were keeping.

He took another sip from his mug; it was cool enough that he could actually taste the darkness of the coffee this time. The stuff was pretty good, he had to remember to thank Monroe for his recommendation—all ten of them. After a few minutes of savoring the taste, his mind inevitably went back to his parents. He just couldn't help but wonder…were the secrets his parents keeping really any of his business?

He'd like to think that the ones involving him were—more like the one's involving a _Grimm_ were. Now that he was thinking about it, it was actually _really_ disturbing that his parents would let their Blutbad son share bunk beds with a Grimm in the making. If Nick had been another person and his birth parents had actually had a chance to tell him about the monsters he was supposed to hunt…well, he really shouldn't speculate.

He was sure his parents had their reasons for not telling him—they were probably similar to the ones they had for not telling Nick—but he had to admit, it would've been nice to know his brother was a Grimm before getting the shock of his life in that hospital room all those months ago.

He drained the last couple of drops left in his mug and slid it to the other side of the small table he was sitting at to reside with the other three. He leaned back into the soft leather of the armchair he was sitting in and took in the scenery. The room had a warm feel to it that was accompanied with light brown walls and large, open windows that allowed most of the evening light to shine in. The place made him feel relaxed; a feeling he hadn't really felt properly since before his inner wolf had decided to become an alpha and just in general screw his life up.

Okay, maybe he was being a bit dramatic…his life wasn't _completely_ screwed up. To be honest, he was getting better at the control thing thanks to Monroe. But just the thought that he was capable of some of the things he'd fantasized about was enough to cause him more stress than before.

Checking his phone, he didn't see any messages or missed calls…he could probably afford to stay for one more cup of coffee. Grabbing three bucks out of his wallet, he was about to stand when a bright and somewhat amused voice coming from his left caught his attention.

"Let me guess, another Long Macchiato?"

Turning, he saw that the voice belonged to a girl standing behind the counter. The girl-who he assumed was an employee based off the black uniform she was wearing-was looking at him with large, knowing eyes and a bright smile on her heart-shaped face; a hat covering what he assumed was light brown hair.

"Umm…yeah, how'd you know?"

"You've been sitting in that corner for the last two hours; I figured it was a safe guess," she answered back still smiling like she was living a dream just by standing behind that counter while she set to work on making his knew mug.

Turning back towards his table, he realized just how quiet it had gotten in the shop. Looking around, he saw it was only him and a guy on a Mac left. The guy was pretty into the Mac so that basically meant it was just him and the girl making his coffee.

He saw her glance at him from behind the Espresso machine a couple times from the corner of his eye, "Shouldn't you be at a bar right now or something?"

He turned to face her again, one eyebrow raised.

"I mean don't get me wrong! I'm all for a guy drowning his sorrows in a caffeinated coffee mug instead of a bottomless beer bottle," she quickly explained through the cloud of steam that was quickly filling up around her head, "it's just you look like a beer would do you more good right now."

"I don't know, I guess I was feeling coffee today," he replied, "Besides, I wouldn't really call it 'drowning my sorrows'," he said a little defensively. He didn't know why he was fueling this conversation with a complete stranger. He wasn't _that_ lonely.

He watched as she furiously shook the whip cream can, trying to get the last bits of the white stuff out onto his Macchiato. Her black apron became speckled with white as the cream exploded out of the can, more landing on her front than the coffee.

He stifled a chuckle, the sound coming out as more of a strangled cough at her bewildered expression. Thankfully, she didn't seem to notice him as she wiped the cream off her face and continued to reach under the counter for the fridge, completely determined. Jason corrected his previous thought…maybe _she_ was lonely.

Finally, she stepped out from around the counter and set the steaming mug in front of him, "What would you call it then?"

Jason hesitated, he wouldn't mind talking to someone, but he couldn't exactly talk about how his parents had hid the truth that his brother was a wanted Grimm. "It's a long story," he stated simply, trying not to look her in the eye too much.

She glanced around the empty shop, staring a couple seconds longer at the lurking Mac guy, "I've got time," she reassured with a smile and sat down in the chair opposite him, watching him expectantly.

Well now it looks like he had no chance of getting out of this. All right, don't panic, all he has to do is leave out a few probably very unimportant details; he can do that…can't he? Well he's going to have to do it pretty soon because he just got full on eye contact and she has those kind of green but slightly brown eyes that will definitely make him forget which details should be left out.

Tearing his gaze away from her eyes he took in the rest of her, finding what he was looking for pinned to her apron; DANIELLE in all caps under the clichéd 'Hi! My name is…' seemed to demand his attention.

Jason looked back up and sighed, here goes nothing, "Have you ever felt like the people closest to you are keeping things from you?"

Danielle's expression immediately took on a more knowing and sympathetic look, "Yeah actually, a pretty common emotion in the average family if you think about it."

'Average' probably wouldn't be the first word that came to mind when he thought about his family but he could definitely see that Danielle knows what he's talking about. Maybe this talking thing had its advantages, "I just…I just don't know how to get around it," he explained searching for the right words, "or even if it's my place to try to get around It," he finished awkwardly. He knew that probably made no sense whatsoever; sometimes his head and mouth just felt completely disconnected. But to his surprise, Danielle seemed to get it.

Eyebrows drawn, Danielle nodded, "It is your place," she reassured firmly, "it's your family isn't it?"

"Well yeah-"

"And you're involved?"

"Pretty much-"

She gave one big nod as if that answer alone solved his problem, brown ponytail swinging as emphasis, "Then it's totally your place. If it involves you then you have the right to know…especially at your age."

Jason blinked, what was that supposed to mean? He opened his mouth, about to ask for _her_ age but he was interrupted, she was on a role.

"What's your name by the way? I don't think I caught it in the last three orders."

Jason silently berated himself; he didn't even realize he hadn't introduced himself yet, "Jason Moore," he said then before he knew what he was doing, he noticed his eager hand stuck out in front of him, waiting for a handshake. Wincing slightly, he thought about aborting…who does handshakes in an easy conversation like this? But it was too late, he just had to bite his lip and hope she didn't think he was a very courteous weirdo.

Watching her glance down at his hand held out in the middle of the table, he sighed in relief when a small smile lighted her features and she reached her hand out to grip his firmly, her large eyes turning warm.

"Danielle, but I prefer Danni," she said shaking his hand.

A silence fell over them after that and Jason took the time to try his coffee. Taking a sip, he almost sighed as the warm liquid rolled over his tongue. The stuff was even better than the last three cups.

"So, Jason," Danni began slowly, causing him to look up from his coffee. Her head was tilted and she was looking at him with tiny traces of curiosity in her hazel eyes, "what are we actually talking about?"

Well there was pretty much the _exact_ question he had wanted to avoid. He tried to think of another vague answer but his witty excuse-maker that always came in handy for just this type of situation had gone completely blank. "Ummm…" he drawled trying to hold off the panic he could feel wanting to breakthrough onto his face. She was giving him a weird look now like she was worried about his mental state. _This was just great._

The sound of the front door opening saved him from having to answer. He inwardly sighed in relief as he saw the new customer walk up to the counter, hitting the bell next to the cash register like there was a tiny fire he had to put out.

Danni turned at the high-pitched and very consistent ringing noise the guy was making with a small role of her eyes, "Sorry, this guy's a usual," she sighed and shook her head, "he's a mess without his evening caffeine fix."

He chuckled a little nervously and took a long sip from his mug, giving him the excuse to not have to say anything. He watched her attend to the guy who just couldn't seem to stop twitching. This would be his cue to get out of here.

Taking long gulps of the coffee; he stood up and walked over to stand in line behind twitchy. When the guy finally moved out of the way, clutching his mug like a fiend; Jason put his four empty mugs in front of Danielle.

Her eyes widened as she took in all the mugs. "That's it; I'm cutting you off," she asserted leaning against the counter with one hand on her hip, "its decaf from now on."

He smiled at her and pulled out the three dollars he was going to use earlier, laying it on the counter and sliding it towards her, "No need, I'm good now."

He turned around and was just about to leave when Danielle grabbed his arm. Looking down at where her hand was clutching onto his black jacket, he curiously looked up to meet her chagrined eyes.

She seemed at a loss for words, just staring back at him, "How will I know how the thing with your family turned out?" she finally said, cheeks tinted a light shade of red.

"I'll come back tomorrow," he said before thinking, "you know… for more coffee." Now he was the one blushing.

He threw out a quick "See you later," and left the shop, feeling super confused and only a little surprised to see that it was already dark out.

_What the hell just happened?_

* * *

><p>Pulling up in front of the crime scene felt like taking a step into the past. Everything was exactly the same as before except this time there was only one headless victim instead of two.<p>

Nick squeezed through a small crowd of people that were already gathering behind the gate barriers, steered clear from the news van and reporters, and then dodged the forensic psychologist who always seemed to be milling around, to finally stand next to Hank and Wu. "I'm guessing same MO?" he concluded with one look at the victim lying next to a dumpster.

"You know a hello from you would just make my day, Nick" Wu drawled, pivoting to glower halfheartedly at him.

"I'm taking that as a yes," Nick countered. Wu's sarcasm always seemed to kick up a notch when he had nothing more to do at a crime scene…or anywhere really.

"Then fine, yes." Wu retorted, "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go have a chat with the friendly forensic psychologist, Jeff," he said leaving the two detectives alone.

At Wu's departure, Nick crouched down near the body to pry open her hand. It shouldn't have come as a surprise, but seeing that scythe cut into the victim's palm brought back all the emotions he'd been feeling since looking at the two Langer girls at the first crime scene. He normally tried not to feel too many emotions when looking at cases like these but this time he couldn't help himself—he was pissed. A heavy pressure on his shoulder distracted him, causing him to look up at the source.

Hank looked down at him, concern etched on his face. "You feeling okay? You've got this weird look on your face."

"Yeah, I'm fine." Nick answered, trying to shake off the dark feeling growing in the pit of his stomach and straighten his face into what felt like more familiar and brighter (hopefully) features.

"Good, cause it was starting to look like you were taking this a little too personal," Hank threw in, fixing him with an accusing stare for good measure.

Well of course this was starting to get personal; the Reapers were doing this because of him after all. Hank didn't exactly see the whole picture yet; the thing is that Nick isn't even sure he can muster up the courage to tell him without making it sound like a crappy childhood sob story. "I can deal with it, I'm fine. You shouldn't worry about me."

Hank shrugged, "Yeah well, somebody's got to."

"Trust me, I've got enough people looking out for me as it is," Nick muttered bitterly, mind going back to how he's going to have to face his family sooner rather than later. His eyes searched the headless body neck to toe, looking for any kind of clue forensics or the ME might've missed.

"Don't bother, we got nothing," Hank interrupted Nick's almost desperate investigating.

"Actually we do have something," Wu said walking back over to their small huddle over the body, a small smile working its way onto his face, "a witness. Just got word from the precinct, they've got him and our favorite interrogation room all warmed up for us."

"Better not keep him waiting then."

* * *

><p><strong>Thanks so much for reading, guys! See you in the next chapter!:)<strong>


	4. Chapter 4

**Happy New Years everybody! Hope you all had a great holiday!**

**So this chapter was originally supposed to be two separate chapters to build some suspense, but since it has been such a long wait between updates and the Holiday's are making me feel merry...well...here you go:)**

**Also, thanks so much for all the reviews, favs, and follows. They really help keep me going and focused on getting more chapters written down faster! Please enjoy this next piece of plot:)**

* * *

><p>The drive back to the precinct felt like an eternity to Nick. Finally they had something, a <em>witness<em>. As long as everything plays out the way it should, they'll be one step closer to finding these guys and hopefully before they have the chance to hurt anyone else.

He parks in the first spot he sees, the car's probably halfway into the next spot but at this point, he doesn't even care. Stuffing his keys into his coat pocket, he practically sprints across the parking lot and to his desk where he finds a man is calmly seated. Catching sight of the man who he assumes must be their witness is relieving but at the same time a little strange. The closer he got to the witness, the more he felt a certain familiarity associated with him. It was…different…but not unpleasant. It felt like a breath of fresh air or that warm feeling you get after smelling a familiar scent with a memory attached. The feeling made him pause in his long strides, but he quickly shook it off and kept walking.

Figuring he must know the guy, Nick took the time he had before he would reach his desk to actually look at the witness. The man appeared to be somewhere in his mid thirties with dark hair brushed off his face and swept to the right. He was lean, but had an athletic look to the way he held himself with dark eyes and chiseled features. All together the guy had an honest, clean-cut look, Nick surmised making his way closer. He tried his best to ignore the weird vibes he was getting from the man for now, _he's probably just Wesen_, he reasoned to himself. God knows he got a lot of creatures coming through here on a daily basis. He should probably keep his guard up though and if the guy woges, don't look in his eyes. That's all he needs is for their witness to blame _him_ for the beheading of the three victims. Walking by the coffee machine, he quickly grabs a small shot of caffeine in a cup, taking a sip as he neared the witness.

The man looks up at him as he reaches his desk and sticks out his hand, "You must be Detective Burckhardt, pleasure to meet you," he said shaking his hand. He does a little start when he sees Nick pause, left eyebrow cocked, "Oh sorry, I'm the witness for the Jameson murder. My name is Hayden."

Nick smiles politely and gives one last shake before reclaiming his hand. He notes the man has a slight accent, barely noticeable. It must be somewhere in Europe he figures as he sits down in his chair, putting his coffee down next to his keyboard. "Okay Hayden, why don't you tell me what you saw today that made you suspicious," He asks deciding to forego the interrogation room for now. Pretty much everyone in the precinct was either out for lunch or standing around the coffee machine so there wasn't that much noise in the large room.

Hayden paused, eyes unfocused and mind elsewhere, "Well let's see, I was out on my afternoon jog like usual when I saw something really strange or at least I thought I saw something really strange… there was a dumpster in the way so I didn't see much but what I did see unnerved me a little bit," he hesitated and squinted a little as if recollecting his thoughts. Nick waited patiently until the witness spoke again.

"I saw two men standing in that alley; one's body was blocked by the dumpster so I only saw half of him but the other I could see all of and he was carrying this curved blade that looked sort of like a-a-"

"Scythe?" Nick offered when Hayden seemed at a loss for words.

"Yeah, that. Like what you always see Death holding or the Grimm Reaper…" Hayden muttered, appearing deep in thought.

Nick's eyes shot to Hayden's face at the sound of both the words Grimm and Reaper in the same sentence. He quickly tried to search the other man's face, trying to get a hint on what kind of creature he could be because that line could only be one of two things…either a really weird coincidence or a very obviously laid hint. But if he was Wesen, he didn't let anything show, the innocence in his eyes covering much of anything else. Nick definitely wasn't convinced. About to ask the next question he had ready, he was interrupted by the sound of his name being called. Looking over, he saw both Hank and the Captain beckoning to him from inside his office.

With a low sigh at the horrible timing, he pulled himself up and out of the chair, "Excuse me one second,"

"Quite alright, I'll just see what else I can remember," he replied helpfully, a friendly smile lighting his features.

_This had better be important_, he thought darkly as he made his way to Renard's office. Any other time would be fine but right now he was just wasting time. Walking into the office, he closed the door with more force than was necessary and turned to face his Captain.

Renard, like always, was seated behind his desk. He had his fingers folded and was gazing over them, the perfect picture of ease and confidence while he waited for Nick to sit down. But Nick felt too agitated to sit. After a couple seconds of silence, he realized that the Captain wasn't going to speak until he relaxed. With a low sigh, he slowly lowered himself into his usual spot beside Hank and waited for Renard to talk.

Without looking up, Renard leaned forward and shuffled a pile of papers he had in front of him, finally switching his intense gaze to the two Detectives, "I know this case has been frustrating for the two of you especially given the circumstances, but I managed to get in contact with a connection I have in Europe. He did some digging, but found that this particular information was heavily guarded and wasn't able to find much," Renard looked down and chose a paper out of the stack he held in front of him, sliding it across the desk, "He did, however, find this."

Looking at what turned out to be a photo, Nick's heart skipped a beat when he recognized himself in the picture. It was a snapshot of him walking down the street and holding a cup of coffee in his hand. He resisted the urge to pick up the photo and instead focused his gaze on Renard waiting for him to explain, his hands clenched into fists on his legs.

"This was found along with some important personnel files," he pulled out two more sheets of paper, "One name is Henry Brandt and the other is Armin Herrmann, although I suspect they traveled here under different names." Renard looked between the two detectives. "This doesn't limit us to two assassins. By the look of things, they want Nick and they'll keep sending Reapers until they get him."

After a short, tension-filled silence, Hank spoke, "How do we handle this?"

"Very carefully," Renard cautioned, pulling out a third piece of paper. "There was a third name found alone, it was sent to me as a precaution. I believe he too may be traveling under a different name, the one we have here is Kurt Jaeger."

Nick stared at the pieces of paper on Renard's desk, eyes fixed on the names as Renard continued to talk. The first two names obviously had to be the Reapers because of the personnel files, but the third name…what kind of professional was being brought in that had no title? Probably someone who used secrecy to their advantage if they didn't have a personnel file. Either way, they wouldn't be able to hide from him forever. One way or another, these murders were going to stop and if the end result was two dead Reapers, all the better, he thought darkly.

As if sensing Nick's dark thoughts, Renard turned his attention to him. "Nick…Nick," he repeated himself when the Grimm didn't take his eyes off his desk. "I want you to stay in the precinct for now. Just until we have a better idea of what we're dealing with."

Nick felt his eyes widen at Renard's words. He is _not_ suggesting he go into protective custody and get pulled from the case! Not now!

"They're looking for you; it'll be safer for everyone if you stay on the sidelines," the Captain continued, ignoring the incredulous look he was getting from Nick and the slightly relieved one from Hank.

"Captain…I can't stay here," Nick began, "They're just going to keep on killing people until they find me!"

"It's not a suggestion, Nick," The Captain commanded, voice changing and rumbling with an authority that seemed to come naturally. "You don't seem to understand the role you play in all of this. We _need_ you alive."

Nick abruptly stood out of his chair, anger flaring inside him. If he didn't want to completely lose his temper, he had to get out of that office before he said something he would regret.

Walking out the door, neither Hank nor the Captain tried to stop him which was a big relief. He needed to try and figure out what exactly was happening and he needed some time to do that...preferably away from the Captain and Hank. Catching sight of the precinct's small and kind of shabby looking coffee machine; he knew exactly what he needed.

Making a beeline for the coffee, he tried his best to take some deep breathes. All these emotions were definitely not helping with his thinking process. Pouring himself a cup of the much needed caffeine, he turned around to face the room now filled with bustling people and took a sip. Thinking back to what the Captain had said right before he left, he realized Renard was right…he _didn't_ understand the role he played, or at least, the role everyone _wanted_ him to play.

He still felt conflicted and definitely confused when it came to Renard; all he knew was that his gut was telling him one thing while his head was telling him another. He didn't know which was right at this point, but he definitely felt like he couldn't trust Renard when he would say things involving the terminology "we" in how much he was needed alive. To be honest, it just pissed him off that Renard was so worried about him when there were much more important things to be worried about right now, like the Reapers or that one mysterious name on the list or even the potential innocent victims that could be killed because they were wasting their time worrying about the stupid, scheming Royals and whatever the hell else was interested in him right now.

Focusing on the witness sitting at his desk, he breathed in and out, trying to slow his racing thoughts. He just had to focus on this witness right now, because he was pretty much the best lead they had. Taking another drink from his coffee, he watched as a deputy walked in between his line of sight with Hayden, stopping in front of his desk like he was talking with the witness.

Curiosity peaking as to what the officer wanted with Hayden, he walked over to his desk dropping his empty cup in the trash on the way and sat—or more like collapsed—into his chair.

The Police officer jumped slightly at the sound of Nick dropping into his seat and turned to face him with a worried look, "Oh, sorry Detective…I was just asking the witness a quick question,"

Nick nodded, doing his best to look as non-threatening as he could. Now that he had a better view of the officer, he recognized him as one of the few Wesen that worked a couple desks away from him and had found out about him being a Grimm. Which unfortunately meant the guy couldn't even look at him without at least Wogeing once in a fit of nervousness. As if reading his thoughts, the officer woged into a Maushertz with a nervous twitch of his head.

Raising an eyebrow, Nick only watched as the Maushertz stuttered his way through whatever it was he was trying to say next. On an impulse, he quickly glanced at Hayden—who was also watching the nervous officer—just to make sure he wasn't noticing anything strange about the Wesen's behavior, but what he saw made him hastily do a double-take, eyes widening in shock.

Hayden's eyes were black—pitch black—and it wasn't just the pupils, the darkness stretched throughout the irises too!

He couldn't look away, even when they flickered off of the Wesen standing next to them to meet his own. At a loss for words, he could only stare into what looked like a dark and soulless abyss as a strange emotion grew in the pit of his stomach. It was almost like fear, but not quite…there was a weird twist to the feeling, making him feel almost exhilarated like he had just gotten into a fight and won. It was then that he put together the weird familiarity he had felt when he had first saw him with what he was feeling and seeing now.

Hayden was a Grimm.

* * *

><p>Nick continued to stare even though the eyes in front of him had long ago changed back to a dark brown, his mind cleared of all thoughts except for one. His witness was a Grimm. The same witness who had apparently seen Reapers kill an innocent girl and lived to tell about it. He watched as the Grimm across from him smiled, the frightened Maushertz long ago having scurried away to the safety of his desk.<p>

"I guess we have more to talk about than I thought."

"Yeah, I guess we do," Nick said furrowing his brow. A deep distrust began to unfurl inside him as he noticed how calm and very _unsurprised_ Hayden was acting at finding another Grimm. That alone was enough to make him uneasy. He didn't like feeling outmatched, especially towards someone like him. Feeling the same familiarity from earlier spike deep in both his head and chest at the thought of finding another Grimm, he quickly squished those emotions and stared at Hayden, doing his best to keep his face as emotionless and blank as possible.

"You're a Grimm."

"Yes," he gestured towards his eyes, "You know these always seem to give me away."

"I know the feeling," Nick prompted sitting back down in his chair and crossing his arms tightly over his chest. He was trying his best to hide just how desperately he wanted to hear more about this mysterious other Grimm before him, but had a feeling he was failing miserably judging by the small smirk that was fighting its way onto Hayden's face.

Giving him a contemplative look, Hayden gave a small chuckle, "I guess you do," he said a bit curiously before giving a daring smile, "it sure is one hell of an experience to see it for yourself though, right? I really don't understand all the commotion though, a bit unnerving yes, but not warranted such a strong reaction, don't you think?"

"Considering our history, I think it's at least a little expected," he answered receiving a polite nod of acknowledgment from Hayden in return.

"True," he said then chuckled, "and quite fitting. Could you imagine a world where Wesen would look at us and not tremble in fear?"

He considered that for a second. It was true—he really hated the reactions he got whenever a Wesen recognized him because the encounter usually ended with him either having to chase them down or fend for his life…two things he really wouldn't mind going a week without. But then there were also those times when he would have to use that fear to his advantage. It was rare, but sometimes he needed information that could determine whether a life was lost or not. Intimidation was the quickest way to get him that information.

He noticed Hayden was watching him, an expectant look on his face as if he were waiting for his agreement, but Nick didn't trust him enough to give anything about himself away quite yet. Deciding it was time to get back to the real issue, he asked the first question that's been on his mind since he saw the guy's eyes turn black, "Why are you in Portland?"

"Yes, yes, down to official business are we? Well no reason not to I suppose…" he admitted surveying the precinct before turning back to look at Nick directly, lowering his voice and leaning closer in his seat, "What do you know of a creature known as a _Merken vogel_?"

Nick racked his brain, thinking back to all the entries he's read in Aunt Marie's—or more like his—books. The name sounded vaguely familiar, but he couldn't put a face to match, "Not a lot, it's some kind of bird creature, isn't it?" he guessed recognizing some of the German.

"Right you are. A Merken vogel, which translates directly to mean 'mischievous bird', resembles that of a tropical bird with a small beak, bright feathers, and a rather interesting ability. They have the ability to copy one's voice to the point where it's essentially identical to the original owner's. I'm sure you can imagine the mayhem this creates."

Well that didn't sound good, a Wesen who could don the voice of anyone it meets? It did sound familiar though… thinking back to his conversation with Monroe and Rosalee earlier that afternoon; this might just be able to fill in a few blanks for them. He would check the books later on, just to make sure Hayden's facts were straight, but first he was going to find out more about this Grimm and his intentions. He glanced back at Hayden only to find the man studying him in return, his dark, inquisitive eyes searching his own.

"You've come in contact with this creature, haven't you?" he asked slowly and not waiting for Nick to respond, he continued in an eager verging on desperate voice, eyes lighting up, "I've been hunting this creature since Seattle, I have tracked him believing his destination is to seek safety in Alaska. But for some reason, he has stopped here in Portland…it doesn't make much sense, travelling North to escape one Grimm only to stop in the territory of another." Hayden speculated, his intense gaze holding his own, "We should work together to find him. You've obviously heard of him, it's written all over you face, and I know how to locate him. We could get him together." Hayden urged, barely contained excitement bursting out of his voice.

Nick shook his head. That definitely was _not_ going to happen, "I don't think that's a good idea, Hayden. This is my territory, this Wesen is my responsibility. I think it'd be best if I took care of it alone," he practically demanded, surprising himself with the fierce protective nature that came over him at the thought of another Grimm hunting creatures in his territory.

Hayden was quiet for a bit, staring at the floor until looking up once again, taking a deep breath before letting it out slowly, "You know Nick, there aren't much of us left. I've searched the whole West Coast and even some East only to come up empty. I'm not sure if you realize, but this makes us even more valuable to those who benefit from our services," he hesitated, some inner turmoil rolling through his eyes, "I think the best way for us to stay alive is to stick together and do what needs to be done to show that not only are we powerful individually, but unstoppable as one."

Nick paused, feeling something almost like want develop in his chest. For a second, he could picture exactly what Hayden was saying. Alone, they would get picked off one by one until they eventually went extinct, but together, they could fight back and stop the Reapers and the Royals and whoever else dared to get in their way.

_Wait_. He ran a hand through his hair, tousling the dark strands a little bit. _What am I thinking?_

_Survival and the only way to teach any Wesen who dared come kill in this territory what was coming to them_, a dark voice inside him argued back.

He met Hayden's gaze and for a second, he almost said yes. He _wanted_ to say yes. He wanted a companion that would truly understand the world he walked in, not accepted in the creature world, but also not belonging to the human world. Misunderstood, judged,_ feared— a_ feeling that no other creature could know in quite the same way. But then a small voice spoke in his head, a weak but annoyingly _logical_ voice that said this wasn't him. He was a cop and that meant he had rules, he had lines to stand behind, he had morals that if broken he knew would haunt him for the rest of his life.

Making up his mind, he knew what he had to say.

"No, I'll find this creature and arrest him before he does anymore damage." Looking into Hayden's eyes as he finished, he could almost swear that the other Grimm's eyes flashed black again, but before he could confirm what he saw, they were back to brown, a sad smile accompanying them.

"I understand," he looked around the precinct from left to right before sighing and standing up out of his chair, "I should probably take my leave then."

Nick watched Hayden as he slowly began to walk away, trying to contain the bubbling need to yell for the other Grimm to wait. "You're staying in town though, right?" Nick practically blurts out before he could stop himself making Hayden stop walking in the middle of the bustling precinct. He can feel his cheeks burning as half the eyes in the precinct turn to stare at him. Focusing his gaze on the scarf wrapped around Hayden's neck, he quickly offered an explanation, "In case we need to contact you again for the investigation."

"I'll be sticking around, I came all this way after all," Hayden states as he begins walking again. Looking over his shoulder, he throws one more thing out, "I'll see you soon, Nick."

And with that, he disappears behind a group of uniforms and Nick is left sipping from his coffee and trying to figure out what the hell just happened.

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><p><strong>Tell me what you think!:D<strong>


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